Two-part cooling device

ABSTRACT

A two-part cooling device including a heat-insulating housing and a cooling circuit including an evaporator, a compressor and a liquefier. The cooling device is subdivided into a first component including at least one housing and the evaporator and a second component including at least the compressor. The first and second components are separable and can be placed in a variable manner in relation to each other.

The present invention relates to refrigerating appliance which isespecially provided for installation in a furniture cavity. Presentlytwo different designs are widely used for these refrigeratingappliances.

In a first design a machine compartment is recessed in a substantiallyrectangular heat-insulating housing which contains at least onecompressor for the coolant circulating in the refrigerating appliance. Acondenser for the coolant is mounted freely suspended on the rear wallof the insulating housing and is cooled by the convection of ascendingair which heats up at the condenser.

In a second known design, with the exception of the evaporator,substantially all the components of the cooling circuit are accommodatedin a base unit mounted fixedly below the housing. A very favourableratio of volume to surface area of housing can thereby be achieved,resulting in a low requirement for cooling capacity; however, convectioncan no longer be used for removing the waste heat from such a base unitso that forced ventilation is required for this purpose. In addition,space occupied by the base unit in the fitting recess is lost to theusers as storage space for other purposes.

It is the object of the present invention to provide a refrigeratingappliance and assemblies for a refrigerating appliance which can achievea high energy efficiency and at the same time allow available space in afitting cavity to be utilised very economically.

It is a further object to provide a method for installing such arefrigerating appliance in furniture.

The objects are solved by a refrigerating appliance having the featuresof claim 1, assemblies having the features of claims 9 and 10 and amethod according to claim 11.

Since in the refrigerating appliance according to the invention, theconventional fixed connection between the heat-insulating housing on theone hand and the base unit on the other hand is eliminated, it ispossible to accommodate both these units spatially separated from oneanother in largely arbitrary positions in relation to one another infurniture such as a kitchen cupboard. A readily accessible zone of thefurniture can be selected for accommodating the first structural unitcomprising the housing whereas the second structural unit comprising thecompressor can be placed in a poorly accessible zone which is not veryattractive for any other usage or in any case, would not be usable atall. Such a zone is especially the base area present in most kitchenfurniture, immediately adjacent to. the floor. The refrigeratingappliance according to the invention has thus opened up space which hashitherto been unused, as so-called machine compartment whereby storagespace is gained either for the refrigerating appliance or the built-incupboard holding the refrigerating appliance.

In principle, it is possible to supply the two structural units of therefrigerating appliance according to the invention joined together exworks substantially only by a coolant pipe but not by rigid mechanicalconnection elements. This has the advantage that the coolant circuit ofthe refrigerating appliance can be joined together in a sealed fashionin the factory and that problems are avoided which can arise if thecoolant circuit is only filled with coolant after the refrigeratingappliance has been assembled at its installation site or if parts of thecoolant circuit filled with coolant at the factory need to be joinedtogether during assembly. Since such a connection makes it fairlydifficult to handle the two assemblies of the refrigerating applianceduring assembly, a coupling is preferably provided, however, in acoolant pipe connecting the two assemblies which makes it possible tomount the two assemblies separately from one another in the furnitureand only join them together after assembly.

Such a coupling preferably consists of two portions, each attached tothe pipe section of the first assembly or the second assembly and whichare self-closing in the uncoupled state. Couplings of this type whichare designed to prevent any escape of coolant in the uncoupled state areknown from air conditioning. The use of these couplings means that thetwo portions of the coolant circuit of the refrigerating applianceaccording to the invention allotted to the first or to the secondassembly, can be filled with coolant in the factory independently of oneanother and nevertheless an uncontrolled escape of coolant into theatmosphere can be prevented.

More appropriately the second assembly is fitted with forced ventilationso that it can also be built into zones of furniture which otherwisewould only be inadequately cooled.

A condenser can in principle be provided as part of the first or thesecond assembly as desired. In particular, if the second assembly isforcibly ventilated, it is appropriate to integrate the condenser in thesecond assembly.

A condensation water pipe for removing moisture deposited in theinterior of the housing is more appropriately guided in a line togetherwith the coolant pipe. In such a case, the condensation water pipe ismore appropriately provided with a coupling in the same way as thecoolant pipe.

An evaporator tray at which the condensation water pipe ends is moreappropriately integrated in the second assembly in order to use thewaste heat released from the compressor for vaporising the water ofcondensation.

Further features and advantages of the invention are obtained from thefollowing description of an exemplary embodiment with reference to theappended figures which show

FIG. 1 is a schematic section through a refrigerating applianceaccording to the invention built into a kitchen cupboard.

The built-in cupboard 1 shown in cross-section in FIG. 1 has a cavity 2in its upper area which accommodates a first assembly 3 of therefrigerating appliance according to the invention. The first assembly 3substantially comprises a heat-insulating housing comprising a body 4and a door 5 which enclose an interior compartment 6 for the storage ofchilled goods. In the figure the interior compartment 6 is shown as anexample without subdivision and with a single evaporator 7 at its rearwall, naturally it could also be subdivided by dividing walls into aplurality of different temperature zones which can optionally each befitted with their own evaporator which can be supplied with coolantindependently of the evaporators of the other zones or it could be anappliance in a no-frost design where the evaporator is accommodated in achamber which communicates from the interior via forced ventilation.

An intake pipe 8 and a drain pipe 9 for the coolant supply of theevaporator 7 are guided out at the back of the body 4 and end jointly atthe coupling portion 10.

A collecting channel 11 for water of condensation draining from theevaporator 7 is formed at the back wall of the interior compartment 6below the evaporator 7. A drain pipe 12 is guided out at the back of thebody 4 starting from the lowest point of the collecting channel 11 andends like the pipes 8, 9 at the coupling portion 10. The couplingportion 10 thus has three connector elements, one for each pipe 8, 9,12, wherein at least the connector elements allocated to the pipes 8, 9are self-closing in the unconnected state of the coupling portion 10 inorder to prevent coolant from escaping from the evaporator 7 and thepipes 8, 9 into the open.

A second cavity 13 of the built-in cupboard 1 below the cavity 2accommodating the first assembly 3 in this case contains two drawers 14.The cavity 13 is not cooled. Its depth is somewhat less than that of thecavity 2 so that between a rear wall 15 of the cavity 13 and a wall 16on which the built-in cupboard 1 is mounted, a shaft 17 connecting thecavity 2 to a base cavity 18 of the cupboard 1 remains free.

In the base cavity 18, a second assembly 19 of the refrigeratingappliance, for example, rests directly above the floor. This secondassembly 19 comprises a compressor 20, a suction pipe 21 and a pressurepipe 22 which respectively connect the compressor 20 to a secondcoupling portion 23, a condenser 24 inserted in the pressure pipe 22 anda fan 25 which serves as forced ventilation for the compressor and thecondenser 24.

The two coupling portions 10, 23 connect the drain pipe 9 to the suctionpipe 21, the inlet pipe 8 to the pressure pipe 22 and the drain pipe 12to a drain pipe 26 which discharges onto an evaporation tray 27 mountedon the compressor 20.

In the case of the second coupling portion 23 the connector elementsallocated to the pipes 21, 22 carrying the coolant are self-closing whennot connected.

The refrigerating appliance according to the invention is delivered fromthe manufacturer in the form of two assemblies 3 and 19 which are notconnected to one another. Assembly is accomplished by first placing thefirst assembly 3 in a cavity 2 in a usual manner for a conventionalrefrigerator and then inserting the assembly 19 into the base cavity,e.g. from the front after a front plinth 28 of the base cavity has beentemporarily removed. The two coupling portions 10, 23 are joinedtogether at a suitable time, e.g., assuming that the pipes 8, 9, 12 areof sufficient length, after placing the first assembly 3 and guiding thepipes 8, 9, 12 and the coupling portion 10 through the shaft 17, bypulling the coupling portion 10 forward through the base cavity 17 andjoining to the coupling portion 23 before pushing the second assembly 19into its position.

The separation of the two assemblies 3 and 19 according to the inventionallows the housing to be mounted at a height conveniently accessible fora user and at the same time to use the conventionally unused base cavityof the built-in cupboard 1 for accommodating the second assembly 19.Compared to the conventional designs of refrigerating appliancesdescribed initially, a volume of about 20 litre is thereby released inthe cavity. That is, the building-in cavity can be reduced in height inaccordance with this 20 litres whilst the volume of the interiorcompartment 6 remains the same, whereby additional space is provided forother purposes in the built-in cupboard 1 or the interior compartment 6of the refrigerating appliance can be correspondingly enlarged whilstthe dimensions of the cavity 2 remain unchanged.

Naturally, it is not necessary to mount the two assemblies 3, 19 of therefrigerating appliance according to the invention one above the otherin a built-in cupboard. A laterally offset arrangement is also feasibledepending on the available space. It is also possible to arrange thesecond assembly 19 above the first assembly 3, possibly in an area ofthe built-in cupboard near the ceiling which is likewise poorlyaccessible for a user in general. In such a case, it would be moreappropriate to provide a pump in the drain pipe 9 or 26 to raise thewater of condensation draining from the interior compartment 6 to thelevel of the evaporation tray 27.

1-11. (canceled)
 12. A refrigerating appliance, comprising: aheat-insulating housing; a cooling circuit including an evaporator, acompressor and a condenser; a first assembly including at least saidhousing and said evaporator; and a second assembly including at leastsaid compressor, said first and said second assembly can be placedvariably in relation to one another.
 13. The refrigerating applianceaccording to claim 12, including a coupling disposed in a coolant pipeconnecting said first assembly and said second assembly.
 14. Therefrigerating appliance according to claim 13, including said couplingincluding a first coupling portion attached to said first assembly and asecond coupling portion attached to said second assembly, said twocoupling portions are self-closing in the uncoupled state allowing saidfirst assembly and said second assembly to be detachably separable fromone another.
 15. The refrigerating appliance according to claim 12,including said second assembly provided with forced ventilation.
 16. Therefrigerating appliance according to claim 12, including said condenserbeing part of said second assembly.
 17. The refrigerating applianceaccording to claim 13, including said coolant pipe together with acondensation water pipe is guided in a line and including a couplingdisposed in said condensation water pipe.
 18. The refrigeratingappliance according to claim 12, including the refrigerating appliancebuilt into kitchen furniture having a base zone and said second assemblyaccommodated in said base zone.
 19. The refrigerating applianceaccording to claim 18, including said kitchen furniture having at leastone compartment, said two assemblies separated by at least onecompartment of said kitchen furniture.
 20. An assembly for arefrigerating appliance, comprising: a heat-insulating housing; anevaporator; and at least one coupling portion from which at least one ofan inlet or drain pipe for a coolant extends to said evaporator.
 21. Anassembly for a refrigerating appliance, comprising a compressor and atleast one of a suction or pressure pipe for a coolant, said suction pipeand said pressure pipe each extend between said compressor and acoupling portion.
 22. A method for installing a refrigerating appliancein furniture, comprising the following steps: a. installing a firstassembly of the refrigerating appliance, including at least oneheat-insulating housing, an evaporator and a coolant pipe, in a firstzone of the furniture; b. installing a second assembly including atleast one compressor in a second zone of said furniture; and c.connecting connections of said coolant pipe of said first assembly tocorresponding connections of said second assembly.